Catching Rain Drops
by Karla3
Summary: Rikku has always wanted to learn her past, but when her past comes for her, can she accept it? How can she protect those she loves without destroying her real family...
1. Macalania Woods

_Catching Rain Drops_ Chapter 1: Macalania Woods 

Pg-13 for swearing.

I don't own anything related to Final Fantasy. I'm just a writer and I don't own much of my own…but I still don't own Final Fantasy. Righto… 

****

" Hey who's there?" Despite the stillness of the woods around her, Rikku still seemed to hear voices in the various shadowed places lurking in the corners. _Get it together girl…_

She resumed her walk and re thinking the events of the past day.

A new clan had risen in Spira. She didn't yet know the name of the clan, but rumors had spread about a certain kidnapping taking place in Bevelle. A group of worried townspeople had come to Besaid asking if the Kanome clan could investigate. Someone said they saw the kidnapped in Macalania Woods. So this had led Rikku to investigate, on her own, but nonetheless investigating. She knew Yuna was at the crevasse between the calm lands and the end of the woods and Paine was wandering around somewhere. She thought of Paine to be…independent…so she had let her go on her own. 

Frana yna oui… 

She shook her head and took out her mini computer. She typed her location into onto the small screen, pressing save, and slid it back into her belt. A chilly breeze blew past and she felt the familiar prickling sensation that she knew as being, cold. _Oh well, it doesn't matter. Father did say to cover up…but what does he know? He's a guy, an old guy. He wouldn't know. _Her neck was aching and she was almost sure no one was here. How could anyone be here? The Macalania Woods wasn't exactly a place to get badly lost in. Each and every path led to same destination, the crevasse. And each path, no matter how many there were, eventually brang you to center and that at least had directions. _Okay I have got lost here on my own but I didn't know the forest so well… _Apparently the kidnapped was supposed to know his way around here and she hadn't heard any word from Yuna or Paine so unless he was deaf, which she hadn't been informed of, he just wasn't in here. 

" Ok…I'm in the right mind to go back to the ship and plan a new search. I don't know…maybe in Luca or something. So if you don't come out right now…I'm leavin!"

She almost swore she heard a cricket chirp.

" Fine!" She packed her gear away and headed for the crevasse. She was almost at the dividing path when all of the sudden she was jolted forward by something pulling at her leg. She fell forward heavily, smacking her head on the ground. Painfully she tried to sit up, but whatever had grabbed her advanced even further by pulling her back and hoisting her up in mid air. 

When she looked up she noticed she had been sprung by a trap and now saw herself hanging from a tree branch by a rope. She resorted to her only and last option. " LEMMI GO! LEMMI GO! YOU'LL REGRET THIS! YOU WILL!…I…I SWEAR YOU WILL!" No reply answered. So maybe screaming at the top of her lungs wasn't the best approach but it did promise at least one result…didn't it?

 " YUNIE! PAINE! HELP!…HEEEEEY!…come on please…just lemmi go" When still she had no answer she gave up began swinging her body in an attempt to grab onto the branch. She was small enough to get herself a get a swing. Despite how much her head hurt from the blood that was now rushing into her head.

_Swing…miss_ " Damn…" _Swing…miss_. " Oh come on!" _Swing…gotcha_! She grabbed hold of the branch and, thanks to her flexibility; she hoisted herself up into the tree. 

* CRACK *

That's not good… 

Unfortunately for her…the branch was not the most stable in the woods. The tiny line spread across the branch in front of her, signaling the cause of the sudden crack. She sighed to herself and didn't deny her fate. The branch snapped and plummeted to ground with her on it. She wasn't sure how high up she was, but when she hit the ground…it hurt. The last thing she remembered before she blacked out was someone jumping down from the trees above and landing soundlessly in front of her.

..~**~..

" Did you get him?" The gruff man received no reply. His anger increased as he watched the nervous young man in front of him, shuffling his feet. " Well?" He asked again. " Did you get him or not!" Being as tough as the small man up front thought he was, he jumped at the loudness of his boss's voice. His voice however, came out as a mere squeak.

" No…we found someone else, snooping around. I think she might have been looking for him too sir"

The man sitting in desk before him slammed his fist down on the hard surface, clearly fuming. " Bring her in"

..~**~..

" Oof…" Rikku sat up straight, rubbing her now aching forehead. Her eyes were not yet adjusted to her surroundings. She rubbed them furiously but in vain. Clearly she had a concussion of some sort and felt slightly dazed. From what she actually could see, she could tell she was in some sort of a cell, surrounded completely by shining metal walls and only one door at the far end. 

She still wasn't sure how her voice was so she didn't bother yelling out to anyone. But instead she laid her head back down on the cold ground and closed her stinging eyes.

Her pain was overcome by a feeling of peacefulness and she drifted into sleep.

_Sitting down on the wharf, she breathed in deeply, watching her brother attempting to catch what remnants of fish there was in the clear beach water. Never before had she ever felt so relaxed! Just the sound of the waves and the breeze hitting her wet skin…it was like a dream she was longing to feel._

_" Rikku!" Damn her brother, damn him for ruining her peace. She looked in his direction, shooting daggers at him with her glare. He didn't notice and pointed to the water. It was her turn to yell. A fiend!_

A harsh pain ripped her side. Groaning, she woke from her sleep. The man above her kicked her for a second time in the side. She squeezed her eyes shut and tried to block out the pain. The man spoke.

" Get up, he wants to see you"

She sadly complied, pulling herself up from the ground, keeping her eyes closed. In the mans eyes, her actions weren't fast enough. He kicked her once more in the same spot yelling to her, " I said get up!" It was too much for her. She fell back down and clutched her side. Gasping for breath she opened her eyes to look at the man responsible.

He was tall and bony, extremely scrawny and didn't look as if he even had much muscle on him! She could easily beat him to a pulp. _How dare you!_ But she was in no condition, so instead of doing what her inner self told her to do, she stood up straight this time and glared at the scrawny intruder.

..~**~..

" What do you mean she's gone? She was in the woods with you two!" Yuna threw a hand to her forehead, noticing Paine do the exactly the same. They were having trouble trying to control her uncle, who was clearly distraught about Rikku's sudden disappearance.  

" Cid, we told you" Paine whispered, " We searched every where for her, she's been taken" Cid shook his head. " You've no proof she was taken!"

Yuna glumly shook her head. " We do. Near her last known location we found a broken branch lying in the path. Tied to it was, what looked like, a rope trap" Yuna looked down to the ground. " I'm sorry" Cid turned away looking out the window of the giant ship. 

" Damnit…" He muttered. " We go searching for one person and end up getting one lost in the process!" He thought for a moment.

" Have you contacted Besaid?" Yuna and Paine both shook their heads. " No, we wanted to make sure we told you first, we'll get in contact with them once we've searched the Macalania Woods better" Yuna looked over at Paine. " It's all we can do" 

Cid nodded and turned to face the two girls. " I want to back up here at…15:00 hours ok? No longer. We can call some people in to help us out. Oh, and did you get that rope?"

Yuna turned around, heading for the back, and retrieved a long, thick piece of rope. She handed to him. H e examined it carefully. Tracing his fingertips over the intricate patterns and right down to end where a simple loop was tied. " It's a rope trap all right…ok you can go now" Both girls looked downcast for a moment before running off the main deck and back into the woods.

" She's a smart girl," He whispered. " She'll find her way back"

With a shake of his head he sat down, still holding the rope and attempted to figure out whether or not the kidnappers had left any type of signature. 

..~**~..

Author's Notes: Please R&R! This took me ages to write actually! Please leave a review for me! P.s, thankyou to Bridget for helping me out!


	2. Shadow Walking

Catching Rain Drops 

**__**

****

Chapter 2: Shadow Walking 

..~**~..

He ignored her expression of hate and walked behind her, placing the shiny handcuffs over her wrists. He smiled when her heard the familiar click and held on tightly. 

" Ok lets go" At his words, the door opened and Rikku was led, unwillingly, out of the cell.

Her first impressions were, _dull, boring, too dark…ouch_ the handcuffs pinched her skin and she fought back the urge to cringe in pain and scratch away at the cuffs. They were walking along a hallway. Lined with dull lights on the ceiling. She sighed to herself and looked to her side at the 'man'. 

His expression never changed. But at a side-glance, he saw her looking directly at him. Her green eyes looked so intriguing. He wanted to stop and look at her more closely…but 'he' wanted to see her right away. Something about her gave him the creeps. The way she walked, or as it looked, glided. Despite being hunched over in pain, she was actually quite breathtaking. When she fell from the tree, she had hit her head pretty hard. He didn't know how much pain she actually was in at the moment but…she hadn't spoken at all. 

They stopped in front of a set of large double doors. " This is it" He said. She looked up at him. His tired eyes, black hair, skinny figure and many scars. She didn't want to go into the room. Whoever was in there, wasn't nice. Maybe she could reason with this man, if her voice would work.

" What…" She started. Realizing her voice was ok she continued. " What's your name?"

The man seemed startled at her sudden attempt to start a conversation. He had thought her too be too badly concussed to try talking. " My name is irrelevant, you have to go and see him now" Rikku shook her head, but cringed when she did so, from the pain it caused. " Please tell me your name…I don't want to go in there" He didn't want to take her in there. His boss wasn't exactly one of the nicest guys. She was clearly upset and scared. " My name is Stee, I know you don't want to go in but you have to ok? Its for the best" She frowned. He was being nice to her now. _Maybe he understands me now…_She looked down for a while but looked back up at Stee with an honest Rikku-smile. 

" Thanks Stee"

He opened the door and led her in.

She greeted by the familiar sight of a dull room, a desk full of papers and a chair facing the back. Obviously whoever this guy was, he was in the chair. _They do this all the time. With the chair turned away. _She was almost angry at the sight. _Chicken. Face me. _Stee left the room. Upon exiting he shot Rikku a warm smile. 

She blew hot air form her cheeks and came to the conclusion that this guy was not going to show himself yet. So in spite of everything that had happened so far…she began whistling. 

" Shut up" The gruff voice silenced her. _So finally man enough to talk me now? _She was fooling herself. Acting all tough. But when it really came down to the bone, she was scared. " Name" Rikku rolled her eyes at the question. Sounded more like an answering machine rather than a nasty boss. 

"Rikku" She answered simply. At this, the chair turned to face her.

He was big. Very big, muscles big enough to crush her with one hand. His oily brown hair fell unruly around his eyes. One thing she noticed that again, was too familiar was the fact he wore a suit with a black tie and no jacket. She peered into his deep gray eyes. 

" Rikku…your Al Bhed aren't you?" She frowned. How did he know that? She had never seen him in her life. _But then again…he is asking so that means he doesn't exactly know._

" Yeah, I'm Al Bhed" _Why am I telling him all of this?_ He smiled. Not a nice friendly smile. A cruel smile that only meant he was getting his way and not her. 

" Go back outside. Stee will take you back to your cell now" He turned his chair back around to face the wall. She was stunned. Such a short confrontation. " That's it?" She asked. " That's all you wanted me for? To know my name and find out if I'm Al Bhed?"

Clearly he hadn't liked her speaking back. " Don't push it girl" 

She took this as a warning and walked back out to where Stee was waiting.

..~**~..

" Paine!" Yuna yelled out into the woods. She heard a distant reply, but it was her. The woods had begun to creep her out. Just the thought that someone had kidnapped Rikku here was unbelievable and didn't give a good feeling of security. The breeze even freaked her out. Yuna wasn't one for getting scared very often. She considered herself to be strong and undying. But every so often she would slip.

Within minutes she heard footsteps and Paine came running toward her. " Yuna?" She rubbed her forehead and smiled. " I got twacked by another branch" Yuna laughed at her friend. Paine had been running into branches an awful lot. She just wasn't used to low hanging objects. 

She lowered her laughter to speak. " Paine have you found anything? I've looked around the area where we found the rope…but still nothing" Paine sighed and handed over her bad news. " No, sorry Yuna…nothing" They both hung their heads. " What will I tell Uncle Cid?" Yuna asked. Paine shrugged. " The truth. We didn't find anything about Rikku or the missing person" 

Yuna had forgotten all about the missing person they had originally been looking for. She bit her lip and looked back up at Paine. " Lets just assume the missing person isn't here. We can search for Rikku some more and get Wakka and Kimahri to look for him up in Mt. Gagazet" Paine agreed. " Ok let's go"

The two girls walked aboard the airship. Once given direction to where Cid was they met up with him. He was sitting by the window, the rope still in his hands. When he heard them enter he jumped to his feet. 

" I've got it!" He yelled. Both girls jumped at his sudden outburst and cast confused looks his way. He smiled back, almost laughing. " The rope, it has the same colour system as that old clan back when I was working on Home. It's been donkey's years since I've seen em" Yuna looked at the rope thoughtfully. " An old clan? Tell us about it"

He cleared his throat. " Back when I was helping to build Home, when the Al Bhed had been brung together, there was a clan. The Guan clan. They were a bunch of troublemakers. Non Al Bhed. So we didn't accept them. How could we? They weren't to be trusted" He bent down again to clear his throat once more. " Anyway, the Guan clan was eventually scattered as time passed, but I still remember these colors as their marking" 

He showed them the intricate patterns on the rope. Blue, silver and red. But the shorter brunette seemed skeptical. " I don't know. Maybe it's just a fancy rope. I mean, it could be this clan your talking about, but you said they were scattered" He nodded. " Yeah they were. But maybe they've gotten back up again. They probably took Rikku because we wouldn't accept them!" 

Paine shook her head. " No I don't think they would go that far. They were scattered and no one has heard of them since. So they probably only just got the clan back up again. Meaning they wouldn't be a very strong clan at this point. They couldn't do anything to Rikku even if they wanted to really" They all pondered the thought. " You could be right Paine" Cid whispered. " You could be right…" Paine nodded. " I'm pretty sure I am"

Someone yelled at them from inside the ship. They needed to go to bed. It was late and neither of them had slept much lately. " Well uncle Cid" Yuna placed both hands on his shoulders. " Tomorrow morning we'll keep searching ok?" He nodded back at her walked back down into the ship. She turned to Paine. " Do think we'll find her?"

" Of course we will" Yuna nodded and grabbed her up in a quick hug before heading of to sleep herself. Paine picked up the piece of rope. She sat down handling it and tracing her fingers over the patterns. "  Neggi frana eh Cbeny yna oui?"

..~**~..

Stee stepped to back of Rikku and unclipped the handcuffs. " I'm sorry about before" he whispered. " You know…about kicking you and all. I thought you were dangerous. A snoopy criminal. I didn't realize you were just a kid" _Kid?_ " I forgive you…but, what does he want with me now? Can I go?"  The handcuffs slid off her wrists. She let out a gasp as her skin was freed. Clutching the red skin she rubbed it. " No, he still wants you here…sorry" She sighed. " Why cant you just let me go and pretend I escaped. I am Al Bhed after all" A look of horror crept over his face. " No! I cant do that! He'd kill me!"

Oh yeah… 

His expression lightened. " Come on I'll take you back and get you something for your head" They walked back to her cell. Rikku cringed at the sight of it and turned back to him. " There's no bed, no sheets, no soft ground and no where to…you know. How can I stay in here?" He looked both ways to check if he was clear before answering. " I'll bring you some things to sleep on an ice pack to help with your head. You might have a light concussion but if you rest up, you'll be fine. The ice pack wont help with much except for the lump on your head" She looked puzzled and put a hand to her forehead. _Whoa!_ She had never noticed it until now.

But she was still grateful. " Thanks Stee. Thanks for helping me out" He nodded, then remembered something. " Listen carefully, if you need to go, underneath the dent in the wall is a hatch. Open it and it will lead to a vent. Once inside, go right, if you go left you'll trigger an alarm. Going right will lead you to the toilets. I'm the only one who uses them so don't worry. And besides, you're Al Bhed so you can get past anyone else right?" She beamed. " Right!"

He threw a quick smile her way and opened the cell. " I'll be back soon" He said, as he closed the door and left her alone. She sat down on the ground and placed a hand to her sore head. Feeling the lump, she groaned. Only now she was beginning to feel the pain. She knew plenty of rest would do her good. Stee would be back soon with something for her to lie on, but for now she had to improvise. The first thing she wanted to do though was check out the hatch Stee had mentioned. She made her way over to the far end of her cell. Sure enough, there was a dent in the wall. She placed her hand over it. Something must have been smacked against the wall pretty hard to cause such a dent. She frowned, noticing a bit of colour…blue, silver and red. Something of that colour had been in contact with the wall. The markings were left there. She cast the thought aside and looked below. She smiled upon seeing the hatch. " Dumeadc ar? Famm E tuhd haat du ku, pid E luimt ica y crufan!" 

..~**~..

"Oihy!" Yuna turned around at the mention at her name. Paine didn't use Al Bhed all the time, but every now and then she did slip. Yuna had been slow at learning Al Bhed but she was getting there. In this moment she did however wish to try out her skill. " Er…E's ujan rana!" She yelled. Paine appeared in front of her, stumbling around over fallen logs and raised an eyebrow. " Since when did you know Al Bhed?" Yuna grinned at her friend. "Hud vun oui du ghuf!" Yuna laughed. Paine rolled her eyes and walked back to the ship with her.  

" I was talking to Cid," Yuna said, " And he agreed to let me learn Al Bhed. I've been getting lessons from him, Brother and …and Rikku" They both fell silent. Neither of them had found anything to help with their search.

" Have you spoken to Wakka or Kimahri yet?" Yuna shook her head. Small strands of hair brushing against her cheeks. " No but I will as soon as we get back" 

Yuna let her eyes drift down to the ground. She looked at the complicated patterns on the woodland floor. The glowing blue-green branches that scattered the paths. She could clearly remember walking this path two years ago, in her summoner garb, wielding her summoning staff and with her guardians at her side.

With him… 

She had never really thought about it much. He was gone and never coming back. Some things were best left the way they were. But she often dreamed of a time where he _existed_ and they would be together.

Together? 

She had proclaimed her love to him once. But he hadn't replied. Had they actually been in love? She hadn't even known him that long anyway. Did she even know what love is?

Despite how different their worlds were, she came to realize just how much they both had in common. How much the same they were.

Did you exist? 

He existed within her. Within her dreams, at night and day. Sometimes she doubted whether or not she really had loved him. Besides, she _really _had only just met him. 

How could, looking at the ground, bring back so many memories? Because this was the place where he made his feelings known.

Feelings…? 

He had kissed her. In all the pain, in all the sorrow she had sprouted…he had kissed her.

" Yuna? Are you still with me?" She jumped at her friends' voice. " Yeah…sorry…"

Would they ever find Rikku? Would they ever find him? Her whole life was simply about walking in another's shadows. Another's footsteps. 

Author's Notes: This chapter didn't explain much about the plot, but I'm eventually getting into it.

Replies:

Kurai Yume : Thankyou so much for the review! Yes it is sort of a FFX-2 fic, but I haven't played the game yet, (not released yet unfortunately) though. So I'm not really following the same plot. It will be a sort of strange fic, (maybe) but still understandable. I'm hoping to make it very unique! Thankyou again! Reviewers like you make writing so much easier!

Drifting Moomba: Thanks buddy, I know I can count on you to read my fics! :) 

Next Chapter : The truth about Rikku's captor's is revealed!!

Please review!

Translations: 

"Neggi frana eh Cbeny yna oui?" = " Rikku where in Spira are you?"

"Oihy!"= "Yuna!"

"E's ujan rana!" = "I'm over here!"

"Hud vun oui du ghuf!" = " Not for you to know!"


End file.
